Trump Gears Up for High Stakes Meeting with Putin; Interview with Randy Bryce; Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 5, 2017 - 10:30 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:30:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Even though he's saying.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Even though he claimed for a long time he'd already met him, with Vladimir Putin. What does Putin want out of this?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: I think what Putin wants is an end to the sort of paralysis of U.S.-Russian relations. You know the odd thing about the way Trump has handled Russia is he's placed himself in a box where he can't do the kind of sensible reaching out and pragmatic deal-making that you need to do with any country. So we're frozen on Russia because he's been too worry about the optics, what it would look like.

What Putin I think wants more than anything else is to break through on that. His big goal has always been the end of the sanctions. When I met Putin last July, when I interviewed him, what I was struck by, there was a moment when I was in the room with the Italian prime minister, Renzi and Putin -- you know, this was before we were going on stage.

Putin really took that 10 minutes of filler time to go at Renzi and say, you know, you've got to get rid of these sanctions, these sanctions don't help Italy. It doesn't help the Italian economy. You're doing America's bidding. So clearly he's very focused on these things and he's very determined.

What Trump should do is to make sure that he doesn't give anything on that subject because what you need is the Russians to back off on Ukraine, the East Europeans to feel reassured. It's a high stakes game. Putin has a big ask. Trump has to be able to handle that carefully.

HARLOW: Knowing what Vladimir Putin values and respects, he respects strength, he respects strong men, right? Why would it be -- in any scenario would it be a win for President Trump not to be tough with him on the U.S. election hacking? Why on earth would he not send a very clear message to Putin on that?

ZAKARIA: So some of President Trump's behavior has tended to be quite strange and self-defeating. You know, for example, on domestic policy, I wonder why didn't he reach out for the big infrastructure plan that would confuse the Democrats, you know, gotten the country behind him. So similarly on this Russian issue, there is the puzzle. Why has President Trump not taken this what would seem like a very statesmen-like position to say, yes, I may have benefitted from it this time, but I am here to protect America's interest, you can't do this kind of thing.

There's an obvious mantle of leadership waiting to be taken and President Trump doesn't want to take it. It does seem to me it has something to do with the fact that there is a very -- almost petty feeling that this would in some way cast a doubt on his victory. You know, there are many times when President Trump has had the opportunity to be more statesmen-like, which would have helped him politically, and he doesn't take it.

BERMAN: And of course he's ceding ground in negotiation with Vladimir Putin if he doesn't bring it up. Maybe he will. Look, maybe when they're behind closed doors he'll use that opportunity to address it.

Another leader with whom the president will be meeting is President Xi Jinping of China. Again, the president has already exerted a certain amount of capital.

HARLOW: ZAKARIA: Yes.

BERMAN: He had him come to Mar-a-Lago. They sat down. They looked each other in the eye. The president thought they had a good relationship, that he had him on board to deal with North Korea. Well, now as of this morning the President Trump says China is not helping on North Korea.

ZAKARIA: Yes. On that I think it was a kind of -- it's a little bit like the Saudi negotiations. There was an astounding level of naivete for a supposedly tough, ruthless, pragmatic negotiator. You know, British Foreign secretary in the 19th century once said countries don't have permanent friends. They have permanent interests. And I think we have to remember China is not our friend or enemy on this issue. It has very deep interest.

North Korea is right next door to China. It is the only treaty ally that China has. We have 59 treaty allies, China has one, North Korea. So we've got to ask ourselves, how does it get to be in China's interest to do this, how do we align those interests, what kind of conversation do we have to have?

I think Trump thought that because he served Xi Jinping chocolate cake, Xi Jinping was going to reverse China's longstanding support of North Korea. No, that's not how it works. You've got to figure out how do you make this in China's interest? How do you raise the costs for China? But also what's the deal?

You think about the way in which the Obama administration got the sanctions regime against Iran, there was a big promise to all of those countries, China and Russia in particular, if you put these sanctions in, we will rich out and negotiate with the Iranians. We will --you know, there was kind of a quid pro quo.

You've got to do that. You know, you can't expect other countries will look at the world exactly as you do. China has its own interests. HARLOW: So President Trump has chosen to first go to Poland and to

meet with a leader who very much likes him and has some of his similar world view before he has gone to the UK, to Canada, to Mexico, some of these key, key U.S. partners, and he will get a very different greeting in Poland than he will in Hamburg, in Germany.

[10:35:04] I mean, Angela Merkel just last week, very critical, without using his name, saying that these will be tough talks with President Trump.

ZAKARIA: Well, I hope again the thing for Trump to do to be statesman-like here, would be to go to Poland and stand there as the representative of the United States and say, you guys have done an amazing job coming out of communism. Poland is a poster child for economic reform. It is a poster child for security reform.

Poland is one of the few European countries that pays its 2 percent that Trump is always talking about. Polish troops have been deployed in Afghanistan from the start of the Afghan war. They were in Iraq from the start. They have been incredibly loyal allies and he could use his trip to Poland to affirm the importance of market reforms, to affirm the importance of political reforms, and to talk about Article 5.

NATO's charter says, you know, if there's an attack on one, it is an attack on all. President trump has been noticeably reluctant to forthrightly say this. The place to do it would be Poland because even though, you know, maybe a populist leader, they are very nervous about Russia. The Poles, more than any other country, remember, they've been invaded by Russia several times in the history, once wiped off the map.

Poland did not exist because it was carved up between the Russians and also (INAUDIBLE) so for them this is all very real and if Trump were to do that, it would be the right thing policy wise and it would again be the right politics. It would make him look good.

BERMAN: And leverage against or with Vladimir Putin heading into that meeting.

HARLOW: Very good point.

BERMAN: It will be fascinating to see.

Fareed Zakaria, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

HARLOW: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Coming up, an ironworker from Wisconsin who wants to take his hard hat to the capitol. The problem? To do it, he's got to go through Paul Ryan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:33] HARLOW: Well, here's a union ironworker from Wisconsin and he is gunning for Paul Ryan's job. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY BRYCE (D), IRON WORKER RUNNING FOR PAUL RYAN'S CONGRESSIONAL SEAT: I've been an ironworker for 20 years. I work hard and I earn every penny that I make. Let's trade places.

Paul Ryan, you can come work the iron, and I'll go to D.C. We can do so much better together as a community and our future depends on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Democrat Randy Bryce is also known as "Iron Stash." You'll see why in a moment. He announced his bid for Congress last month and he joins us now live.

Thanks so much for being with us, Randy. We do appreciate you joining us. You're running as something, look, of an outsider here. That video has gotten tons of attention.

HARLOW: Tons.

BERMAN: You know, depicts you as an ironworker. Suggests you want to trade places with Paul Ryan. You obviously got his attention because his campaign spokesperson has come out and said of you, "Bryce is a liberal agitator in Wisconsin. He's not a political novice. He's a three-time failed candidate who has been repeatedly rejected by southern Wisconsin voters for his far-left positions."

Your reaction to that.

BRYCE: Well, it takes an agitator to get rid of some dirt. I'm not -- it is true I have ran before. If you look at the areas that I did run in, it's -- there's a lawsuit currently pending in Wisconsin, dealing with the gerrymandering that took place.

And I don't really consider those losses complete losses because I looked and I learned a lot of things from running those races. There was -- you know, I could just point to our launch to discuss things that I have picked up, and I would have to say that I'm a pretty quick learner if you look at how our campaign launch did take off.

We've managed to -- we brought in -- the numbers are still getting totaled up as far as how much we've brought in, but within 12 days we've managed to get contributions from every state in the country. Over 16,000 people and the average contributions was just over $25.00.

HARLOW: So, Randy, let's talk with issues and let's start namely with health care because this is something you chose to focus on in that ad that's gone viral. The powerful moment in it has to deal with your mother who has been battling multiple sclerosis.

BRYCE: Right.

HARLOW: Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a very painful condition. It's like hot knives going through. And you can't talk, you can't swallow. It's terrible. I'm going to cry. I'm on 20 drugs, and if I don't take the one that costs thousands of dollars, I don't know what would happen. You have to give me a bear hug.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:45:13] HARLOW: So you're critical of the House and Senate GOP health care plan. And, frankly, it doesn't sound like you think Obamacare has worked for enough Americans. You support for universal health care, a single-payer system. Why is that the answer given all the challenges that it has posed?

BRYCE: Well, I think if we really want to worry about, you know, look at how it will help American people, we need to find ways to make these solutions work, not look at excuses for why we can't get something done.

When you look at things, you know, like my mom having access to health care, and it's something that we currently have that they're trying to take away. We're not losing it. Losing is when you misplace something.

Look, they're actively trying to take away health care, which for my mom means literally independence. My father who's not pictured in the video, he has Alzheimer's, and he's in assisted living right now. If my mom doesn't have access to her health -- her medications that she has to take, she can't go visit him on a daily basis. She can't go to the grocery store to buy things for herself. She's able to do that now. They're trying to take away not just from my mother, they're trying to take away everybody's ability to have independence.

BERMAN: You're not just against, though, what the Republicans are trying to do in Congress right now.

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: You want to go even further than Obamacare. You're for single payer. You're for basically universal health care.

BRYCE: Sure.

BERMAN: You know, and there's an analysis from a group called the Urban Institute which we haven't been able to double-check but it says, you know, Bernie Sanders, you look at his plan for universal coverage that he ran on during the primary, you know, could cost $32 trillion over 10 years. Even if that's half that, that's a ton of money, how do you propose paying for it?

BRYCE: Well, there's a lot of people that are getting away with not paying their fair share in taxes right now and they --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: You want to raise -- you want to raise $32 trillion in taxes?

BRYCE: Well, I'm not saying that we have to look at ways to just increase complete costs. There's a lot of things that we can look at as far as making things cost-effective. But, again, there's a lot of people that are not paying what, you know, their fair share of taxes are. There's corporations getting away with a lot.

HARLOW: That would be quite a tax hike. I mean, that's an astonishing number, $32 trillion over a decade. But let's get you before you go on a really key issue right now, given it is front and center for the White House at this point. And that is North Korea. How specifically should the Trump administration deal with the new threat from North Korea, testing this new intercontinental ballistic missile that it is believed could in very short time reach the United States? What should they do?

BRYCE: Well, I don't have specifics. I haven't seen exactly what -- I don't have information on what North Korea launched. I plan on -- we're going to take a trip later on this month to Washington, D.C., to get better educated on the issues and I hope to have more information then. I mean, I have ideas and there's things I'd like to say, but right now it would honestly be speculation, and I don't feel comfortable just going --

HARLOW: But you're running right now. You -- I mean, Randy, you're running right now for, you know, this seat, and you've launched an ad, and this is, you know, a front-and-center concern for all Americans. You have no specifics?

BRYCE: Well, I have -- I have no specifics on what's going on in North Korea. I feel that we need to be able to defend ourselves. I'm aware that we have had U.S. troops on the Demilitarized Zone. You know, being a veteran, I'm very aware of having a presence there, and I know that -- I also read that our Secretary Nikki Haley was talking about how inconvenient it was for her to have to deal with meetings dealing with North Korea.

Well, I would say look at troops that have been there for, you know, over 50 years. And we need to look at ways to take care of them when they come home.

BERMAN: All right. Candidate Randy Bryce from Wisconsin, thanks so much for being with us and the mustache is truly fantastic. So thank you for your time, sir.

BRYCE: Thank you, have a great day.

BERMAN: All right. One of the big surprises in the NBA free agency sweepstakes made the right decision. Going to Boston, coming to C's. Now, you know, some people don't like it, but they're wrong.

HARLOW: Look at that.

BERMAN: We'll get you updated on all this in the "Bleacher Report" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:30] BERMAN: On the 4th of July basketball star Gordon Hayward declared his independence from the Utah Jazz.

HARLOW: That's one way to put it. Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy and John. Where is he going again?

BERMAN: The Boston Celtics.

(LAUGHTER)

WIRE: That's right. And congrats to you and Celtics fans because teams are rolling out the red carpet to land one of the most highly coveted free agent this off-season, Gordon Hayward. Celtics coming out on top. Hayward used to play for the Jazz and fans started a gofundme page to raise thousands of dollars to put billboards up around the city saying, #stayward, begging Hayward to stay but the all-star busted a move for Boston.

A reported four-year deal worth $128 million. Hayward's new teammate Isaiah Thomas was so happy he took his shirt off and started busting a move in the kitchen yesterday. He said Hayward is the type of player they need to get to the finals.

Now as happy as Thomas and Celtics fans, Jazz fans, they didn't take Hayward's decision very well. Instead of firing up the grill on the 4th of July, they were lighting up Hayward's old Utah Jazz jersey. Lighting them on fire.

All right. Here's a homerun like you have never seen before. Yankees' rookie Aaron Judge hit a homerun so hard that it cracked the metal wall after it went over the fence. 6' 7", 280 pounds, he is bigger than the Patriots' tight end Rob Gronkowski. He's a beast. Judge leads in 28th homerun of the season. He needs now just one more to tie Yankees' rookie record for the most homeruns in the season.

[10:55:02] We're only halfway through the season. That record was set back by the legendary Joe DiMaggio in 1936.

Finally avert your eyes if you are easily nauseated. Joey Chestnut won his 10th Nathan's famous hotdog eating contest on Coney Island. 72 hotdogs in just 10 minutes. He beat his own world record. That equals about 15 pounds of hotdogs. So imagine shoving a Thanksgiving turkey down in your gout all at one time essentially. All told, Chestnut ate over 20,000 calories, 56,000 milligrams of sodium.

Guys, that's 37 times the recommended limit on the FDA Web site.

You can look, again, Poppy, if you were steering clear of that one.

BERMAN: God bless America.

HARLOW: Time for a juice cleanse. BERMAN: That's right.

HARLOW: Or two. Coy Wire, thank you.

WIRE: You're welcome.

HARLOW: A lot ahead. President Trump is in the air right now. He is headed overseas to Europe for very key meetings with world leaders.

BERMAN: Yes. This as North Korea tests a missile that U.S. intelligence officials say they have never seen before. New developments coming up.